learnsmarto

Counting down the days of me turning into a quarter-century old dinosaur,

I had left Audrey with an important task to plan for

my birthday celebration from 13 (Fri) night - 17 (Tues)

Yea~ I was signed up for a Macaroon Workshop together with her.

Ever since I taken my first bite at macaroon, I was thinking how they get such a texture.

So I tried google-ing recipe & have a go baking them myself, but failed twice miserably.

This time I was determined to learn it the right way & gotta thank my baby for that =)

It is not as easy as you think, the shells have to be the exact size.

Have you ever see Bakers squeezing out those piping bag?

Believe me, it is not as easy as you think to get them consistent.

Anyway, the minute difference can be even out by tapping the tray

& the mixture will turn into smooth round circles in no time!

The reason behind why macaroon are so expensive is.....

that it needs to be very precise at every step

or you will end up with a batch of sticky gooey stuff.

If you can master the steps, it is just a matter to mass produce it~

I reached a conclusion that if you are not a baker,

it is probably more worth it to buy right from the counter~

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Saturday, 14 June

Breakfast time,

Audrey drank Kopi, I drank Tea

Drink till the halfway mark & pour into 1 cup

Final product: Yuan Yang

*You can try it with your love the next time you have an opportunity*

As for the plan of the day, there wasn't anything fanciful,

but a tour to Aud's Fajar Secondary School.

Despite wearing school CCA t-shirt, the security denied us access =(

If you are thinking of going back to primary or secondary school,

please remember to schedule a time with a teacher

& don't make the same mistake like us!

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Sunday, 15 June

Father's Day usually fall on the weekend before or after my birthday

& this year I get to have a great lunch at BoonTongKee (Bukit Timah) with Aud's family,

but the cooler part was how we coincidentally wore the same coloured top!

After lunch, continued the tour to Aud's Bukit Panjang Primary School

The tour didn't take too long going to places & listening to Aud's childhood stories.

Hung out at nearby playground to chitchat until it was getting a little too warm..

head up to Aud's place to rest for a while & my parents rang me for dinner.

Didn't even get to digest or rest much & I have to eat again~~

I didn't have much appetite, but I happily chose Sakae Sushi

to expose my parents to the Jap cuisine that they don't really eat.

One word sums it all, Love.

when we returned home something bad happened,

I dropped Aud's camera while alighting the van & it stopped working...

I was planning to use it to capture the whole celebration

Just one drop & that's it. What a pity.

Finally back at Aud's place, but was kept waiting in the living room..

She was preparing her room for me to have an outer space ambience~

Catch a classic old film, The Mask.

I have never told her, but it was one of my favourite movies.

& then we go to bed early in preparation for next day's activity~~

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Monday, 16 June

Woke up to breakfast in bed =)

It is one of the sweetest thing that Aud has done!

I bet she put into a lot of effort into cooking this western breakfast...

She was able to wake up despite us being so tired form staying up late

& serving it up to my sleepy face without me noticing her plan hahah.

I get to randomly choose either of the 2 itinerary & I'm going Kranji Country Side~

We gotta make the most out of our day, LET'S GOOO~~~

People, this is the bus to the country side at Kranji MRT's bus stop.

DON'T take the wrong one & later end up in JohorBahru instead.

Prepare $3 per person. Note: cash on hand just in case

FYI for you to plan your own little trip

Anyway, 1st stop - Garden Asia~

Be mindful of the sprinklers~

Look what we have here~

A secret garden all to ourselves, YAY~~

Audrey with her model worthy shots!

& me with my fair share as well~

Just 1 spot & we went photo frenzy hahah...

It didn't stop there as Audrey get her hands on 美拍 app

& we were so amazed by how ingenious the app was.

The plan to dine at Bollywood cafe / restaurant was burst

coz they close on a Monday. So we just have to find another place~

The bus to fetch us to the next spot was still quite a wait

& we decided to just walk and enjoy the view along the way.

This plantation beside Garden Asia looked kinda abandoned

as there were no staff on the ground & it was quite bare.

Next location!

oh well, let's at least take a shot at the potted plants

Pretty nice, isn't it?

not too shabby from an iPhone~

Check out my other photos on my instagram,

@learnsmarto

So it took us 10 mins walk to reach this place,

MAX KOI FARM

From the looks of it, this seems like a cool chilling / fishing spot.

There are these big fat Koi all over the place~

These photos don't do them justice, but they're easily bigger than my foot

& they have other fishes tooooo~~~

We were clearly tricked by the distance between the abandoned plantation to Koi farm

as the next stop was about 15 - 20 mins at some random market fish place.

Met an old couple & asked them for directions to Frog Farm.

They were saying the farm was not operating on Monday... -.-''

So made further change to our plan... how bout going to goat farm??

We can walk there!!! *may be that's too ambitious*

The old couple offered to drop us at Farmart Centre since they're going there.

Alright, we shall come back to Kranji Country Side on another occasion

since alot of places & activities are not available on Monday.

Perhaps come back with a personal transport will be better!!!

Farmart Centre, HERE WE COMEEE~~!!!

Visitors can check out the feeding area for fish, frogs, goats, guinea pigs & rabbits.

Sadly, they don't really allow photography for some animal,

but I believed that you should be able to get a shot of the frogs =P

After covering a full round of what Farmart Centre has to offer,

the pet centre seems to be the most interesting as I get to see all these cuties.

If I ever get a pet dog, I will start with a miniature schnauzer puppy =)

Last photo before we leave the place...

Off to Lot1 @ Choa Chu Kang for some air-conditioning..

Instead of rushing my day for dinner @ Demsey,

I decided to catch "How To Train Your Dragon 2" & had an early night....

to prepare myself for World Cup - Germany VS Portugal

I truly didn't expect such a crowd at the CC 5 mins into the game

& I was standing all the way back of the assembly hall.

The lucky thing was that the score turned out to be 4-0 by halftime

& we rather go home to count more sheep.

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Tuesday, 17 June

I didn't do much except being fixated on getting the camera to work.

2 hours down & the camera was finally pronounced dead

when I actually broke one of the ribbon cables for the LCD screen.

That was the moment I gave up & crazily dismantle every single part

That sums up the day & my birthday celebration for 2014,

but there's always more in the month of June =D

- 7th June -

Ever since I heard about uPSS 2014,

I told myself, "It's now or never!!"

btw, registration strictly require recent 3R photos of 1 Close-up + 1 Full-body;

the TV crew said they won't accept if the shoe is cropped out.

After much digging, set my mind & went with these 2 photos.

these barely pass the mark as it's not really "recent" per se hahah~~

Taiwan was 1 year back if you were able to spot..

Relive the moment by clicking HERE

Anyway, I along with Pei Boon & Zhi Hao climbed the hills of Caldecott to Mediacorp,

but registration was closed for the day due to overwhelming response;

by 2pm, filming had been fully scheduled all the way to 9pm

& would require new applicants to come back the next day at 10am - 12pm.

However, Pei Boon & me were needed at work from 1030-230pm at Kallang Theatre!!

At first, the TV crew said that if we couldn't make it then that's that.

We find that it was unreasonable & decided to have a chat with the TV crew.

The conclusion was that we were able to come after work, but latest by 3.30pm.

Phew~ If not, the dream of becoming a star will end just like that hahah.

Since we didnt get to audition,

here's a subtle Mediacorp shot before we leave~~

To be honest, I didn't prepare anything right till the last few days

& I was so nervous that I couldn't sleep or eat properly.

So I was really kinda relieved to hear that I have 1 more day to prepare

& straight away I felt my hunger for some Japanese cuisine, Sushi~~

~ Headed down to AMK Hub ~

Heavy lunch @ Ichiban Sushi, but no photos coz I was too hungry.

Afterwards, we watched X-Men: Days of Future Past

& I was thinking what happens if can all change our own fate.

Ended the night with a little supper + chitchat at some Indian Prata place!

8th June, the actual SHOWDOWN

Reported 10.30am for Ushering Duties at Kallang Theatre

< APB, Sky, KXM >

< APB, Daphne, KXM >

Some selfies @ work

Cabbed down just in time for audition

& found out they actually waited for us since 12pm to let us audition.

Unfortunately, this news came as a shock with no preparation time for us

& I was the first up to face the judges + camera + close to 10 TV crews in the room.

No choice, gotta brave up & rock on!!

Anyway, my audition song is 'Evan Yo - 我用一首Demo跟你告白'

which I heard this catchy song over the radio a few days back

& I hope to win the judges vote with my confession XD

on Friday night, I was practically so nervous....

that I was looping the verse & chorus for practice...

pacing around my room trying to rehearse my speech & stuff...

Unfortunately, my preparation wasn't enough & I forgot a little tiny bit of the chorus.

I wasn't holding any high hopes, but everybody didn't get to know the results

as Mediacorp will only notify qualifiers by phone / email within 1 week.

I was having mixed feelings for that 1 week,

*A Glimpse of Hope* or *Can't be Bothered*

Even when I knew some people had been notified...

I was still holding onto the *never give up* attitude

*There's still time! They will inform me tml~*

In any case, I didn't get in to the next round, but I learnt the true meaning of,

"台上一分鈡，台下十年功";

a Chinese saying, 1 minute of performance on stage requires 10 years of hard work off stage!

Guess I shall just enjoy the show

& pick up some new songs along the way =D

On 31st May,

I was off to ONE°15 Marina Club with Audrey;

it was a rare sight for us to see all the sail boats & apartments at Sentosa Cove.

Everybody, this ship right here is "Dragon's Lair";

out of so many boats / ships at the dockyard, I will still pick this any day and everyday.

Looking at her, it makes me wana own a boat & sail all over the world~~~

BTW, the plan was for Warren to bring Jay (Audrey's colleague) on board the yacht

as we (her close friends, Audrey & her co. + me) party away Jay's 30th birthday.
We have sorta like a potluck where we each bring at least 1 munchie and 1 drink.

Destination: Lazarus Island

a discreet stretch of beach which is very close to the shores of Singapore

& that could very well be a place for you to experience a little get-away feeling!

We had a couple of beers, enjoyed the sea breeze & dive into the waters~

Oops, how rude of me to forget introducing the captain of the day!
Nah, I'm just kidding~~
Posing as the captain is one of those things that you cant miss~!!

& I had Audrey become #Coke spokesperson.
which reminds me of a recent Coke advert...

One out of the many, Coke bringing happiness to everyone.
I would like to work towards that belief
& befriend more people who thinks alike =D

time for a #coupleselfie

& a nice group photo~~

All in all, half a day will pass by in no time;

I was so drained at the end of the day & could knock out at any moment~~

However, I got a BIG event the next day & let's hope I can wake up on time =(

*Next time, I am gona try going there on a ferry & update again*

Given that I am turning into a quarter-century old dinosaur,

I have come to realization of my priorities in life

& I would still like to dedicate more time

to connect with people & friends through my blog.

To sum up for my hiatus, it has all been revolving around WORK WORK WORK

as I have been busy searching, applying & interviewing for Marketing related roles.

I managed to land one & I'm getting the hang of it as of this moment.

Perhaps, I shall come back to this topic at a later time =p

For the last 25 years, I haven't been celebrating much for my birthday,

but let me share one of the few yet memorable celebration when I was at the age of 10.

It was just a simple celebration with my childcare friends

who were there genuinely to share the joy or perhaps the cake.

*All kids love cakes, right!?*

Over the years, I have become more low profile & I'm usually in the category where my birthday gets forgotten due to various reasons, but let's not get too hard up on that.

At the age of 21, I haven't been to club since I am of legal age

& decided to celebrate with my army friends on my virgin trip to Zouk.